Killer Instinct
by Sunriserooftops
Summary: What you've been told not to do is usually the thing you end up doing anyway, or at least in the case of Jo Harvelle. COMPLETE


Killer instinct

1

Shreveport, New Orleans

Joanna Beth Harvelle paced the parking lot of Fangtasia. She was scared to go in. She had been here before; but it wasn't that the vampires in the club were rude or that the people in there were all fangbangers - no offence to any of them, but Jo didn't really understand the fascination - that scared her. It was the pounding of her heart that scared her. It was simply the thought of walking into that club looking the way she did.

She felt more than ridiculous and way out of her mind.

But she bent down and pulled the zipper of her high heels all the way up, let her hair down and looked at the gorgeous blonde at the door. She remembered the blonde as Pam, and the girl she was talking to had to be that Pookie girl she had heard the hunters talk about. Not that Pookie, or whatever her name was, knew about the hunters and all the other creepy stuff that hid in the night. Good for her, Jo snorted and started walking in the general direction of the door and the bouncer.

Jo's heart pounded harder in her chest as she saw Pam eyeing her as she walked up.

"You," Pam said in her cold and demanding voice. "We have been waiting."

"I know," Jo said, cocky as ever. She batted her heavily made up eyes and smiled. "Some of us aren't as naturally gorgeous as you Pammy."

"No one wants an ugly vampire," a dark man said, his accent heavy, as he looked over his shoulder at Jo.

"Or a fat one," Pam said. As coldhearted as they came, thought Jo and slauntered inside.

The red nightclub was thick with smoke; cigarette and from a machine, as she came in. Her breath caught in her throat and she coughed, looking aruond the room. She saw nothing worth her time. A vampire here, a fangbanger there. Nothing out of the ordinary.

She went over to the bar, hitting the top to get the attention of the bartender. He looked at her and his teeth were showing.

"What can I get you, darling?" He offered her his hand, and she knew it was impolite not to take it. Not to mention dangerous. So she put her hand in his and smiled the goofy grin of a fangbanger.

"Rum and coke please-"

"She'll have a water," a dark voice said from behind her. The voice layed thick with age and wisdome, as well as ice and business. This was her least favorite part of the night.

"If you are to waitress my bar, you will be sober doing so." HIs cold hand gripped her arm, her hand letting go of the glass of rum and coke.

"Yes."

"Yes what?" he demanded, his eyes filled with some strange fire that scared her whitless.

"Yes master."

"Better," he said, still not loosning the grip around her arm. She looked up at him, into the deep blue eyes that she would have avoided if she could. As she looked into his eyes he let go of her arm, but not of her gaze.

"No drinks for this one," he said to the bartender. "She is new."

Where did that accent come from, she wondered as she watched him turn his back on her and leave.

And that had been what she had been scared of when she was pacing the parking lot. She had seen him before. The Viking Vampire of New Orleans, the sheriff of Area 5 - Eric Northman. With his blue eyes, tall figure and his long blond hair Eric was a dream to look at. He had the rugged good looks - something her constant crush Dean Winchester also had - or someone who lived on the edge. What edge Eric lived on, Jo didn't want to know. She was certain of it.

2

Fangtasia

Eric watched Sookie as she and Bill sat down at their usual table. Why Bill insisted on going mainstream, Eric would never know. In Eric's mind he had it all. For a thousand year old dead guy, he did indeed have more than most of his generation. He was still alive, in the technical sense, and he had a house, a coffin to call his own, a club that did fabulously well and lots of women who begged not only for a night with him but also to bed him. No, Eric Northman lived well as a vampire, and he didn't regret for a moment that he had been so public about his status the moment the vampires "came out of the coffin".

For years now he had tried to be a good guy - something that still didn't roll off his tongue right. And he had tried even harder once he had seen how Sookie had taken to Bill, not like a pet as other vampires kept their humans, but as an equal.

And Sookie had something other women in New Orleans didn't-

The new waitress crossed his line of sight and for a moment he lost his train of thought. She looked like Sookie, with the long blond hair and blue eyes, she had the same cocky attitude he couldn't stand in a woman. But there was something about this new waitress that Sookie missed.

A killer's instict.

She put the dogs in the crowd in their place at once - and she knew her way around a bar, that was for sure.

Eric would know, he had seen his fair share of waitresses during his years as owner and patron to several bars and clubs. Back in the 18th century he had been quite the man about town, galavanting about with the most amorous of Ladies of the night. Something, he had learned, wasn't all true. Not one of them had been a true Lady of the night, while he was a true Lord. Eric could feel the corners of his lips twitch.

Be careful, he told himself as he touched his chin, trying to look dark and brooding. Or the visitors may think you a cheerful man. He called the attention of Pam, something he had found more and more useful since Bill and Sookie started coming in. In a matter of seconds Pam was at his side; his ever loyal child and companion.

"Den nya servitrisen, vem har anställt henne?" - The new waitress, who hired her?

"Jag antog att det var du..." - I assumed it was you...

"Och jag antog att det var du." - And I assumed it was you.

"Om det inte är vi," - If it's not us - Pam looked at the other owner, nodding in the direction of the new waitress.

"Det är inte han heller." - It's not him either.

Eric left his throne, the helpless women who had stood in line to watch him sighing unhappily. He put his hand on Sookie's shoulder and whispered to her "I need your service, and you told me once that you would provide at my need."

Sookie looked up, a slight fear in her eyes; nothing Eric didn't enjoy.

"What do you want?" The dreary voice of Bill Compton made Eric want to roll his eyes.

"I need to find out who hired my new waitress, since neither I nor Pam seem to have done so - someone must have or..."

"Fellowship of the sun," Sookie breathed. Eric felt his nostrils flare and saw the same wild look on Bill's face.

"Pam," Eric said, and off she went.

3

Fangtasia

"Closed; we are closed," Pam called out in her perfect yet broken english. Jo looked up from the order she was taking and shrugged.

"I guess we're closing, come back tomorrow, you hear?" She loved her accent, the one so fake a native would have heard it a mile away. The tourists, they thought it all sounded the same.

"Fine," the said, nodding as they got up.

In less than four minutes the place was empty and the only one's left were the vampires, the Pookie girl and the waitresses.

"You can all go home," Eric announced. "Apart from you," he said, pointing a long rough finger at her. Jo's eyes went wide open and her jaw was about to drop when she caught herself.

"Whatever you say, master." She had never tried so hard to sound sexy in her life.

The other waitresses and most of the vampires scampered off. Jo stood there, looking at the tall beautiful Viking. She was really trying to stay cocky.

Oh her mother would kill her for being alone in a bar with vampires like this; this had not been part of the plan when she came down to look into the business of Fangtasia!

She was sure they could hear her heart pounding in her chest, her blood racing faster than she could remember it doing before.

"You are nervous," Eric declared.

"I'm only human," Jo stated, sticking to the truth.

"Sookie-" Hell, she'd been wrong, it wasn't Pookie at all. Damn. Ah well-

"Yes?"

"Take her hand," Eric instructed, pointing to Jo. The blond girl did as she was told, looking over at her own dish of tall dark and brooding. He nodded.

"Now, tell me you name, waitress," Eric demanded.

Jo didn't look into his eyes, sure the whole glamour thing would melt her head if he tried it.

"Joanna Beth Harvelle. Jo."

Eric glanced at Sookie, who nodded.

"Tell me, Joanna Beth, who did hire you for work at this bar?" His grammar was a little off, and Jo got hung up on it. She looked up at him and felt Sookie's hand press her own but said, with no fear at all.

"You mean, who hired me to work in your bar?"

She saw the others looking stunned, petrified for her. She knew she had crossed a line even before she said it, but for once Jo didn't care.

"Yes," Eric said, trying very hard to look calm.

"No one did. I merely told Pammy here I had been hired by the sheriff. And you assumed she had hired me since you saw us talking as I came in. Through the wrong door I might add. Beginners mistake, huh?"

Eric looked her over. "What is it you want?"

"She wants information on you, on the system-"

"What the hell is she?" Jo said, addressing Eric directly.

Eric took a long hesitant pause, one that had Jo on her toes. "Telepath."

The tall dark and brooding one gasped, as did Sookie - who let go of Jo's hand.

"How dare you?" she started. "We had a deal, and goddamn you Eric, that was not part of it!"

"Relax," Jo said, bending over to unzip her boots. "It's not like I'm a normal person." She pulled out a stake from her boot, and a little knife from the other. "But I'm not a Fellowship member if that's what you're worried about."

"So what are you?" they asked, all of them having taken a few steps back.

4

Shreveport, New Orleans

Jo threw her more than uncomfortable shows in the back of her car, and took out the wet-wipes from the glove department. She started wiping at her eyes as she looked at her reflection in the sidewindow of her car. She unhooked the large earrings from her ears, one ear at the time, while continuing to wipe at the heavy make up.

It itched, and she wanted it off her face in seconds.

"You are brave," he said. She smiled at her reflection and continued to remove the last of her eye make up. She reached in the open window and pulled out jeans and a man's shirt. She threw the wipe in the windown and started to wriggle into the jeans. She pulled her skirt up over her head and threw that too in the window. The corsett was painful, but since she didn't have a bra on underneath - that would have been murder - she just threw the shirt on ontop of the corsett and turned to face the Viking.

"I'm a hunter, it's pretty much a given."

"A killer's instict."

"What?" she said, her eyebrows furrowing.

"That is what sets you apart in a crowd," he said, slowly and with a gentle hint of difficulty.

"How long have you been speaking english?"

"For a few hundred years. But it is still very - difficult."

"Were you really a Viking, or is that just stories?"

He weren't the least bit modest where he stood with his chest and feet bare, his long mane of golden hair whipping in the soothing wind. "There are many stories, when you have lived as long as I have. But yes, I was a Viking. A great warrior and I would have made a woman proud to be my wife, my hunting skills were excellent."

"Are they still?"

He laughed. "Yes, of course. More so now."

Jo felt her stomach churn. "The vampires I knew of, the vampires I grew up believing in were vicious and cruel, blood thirsty animals who did everything for a kill - for a party that involved a lot of blood."

"Yes, but it grows weary after a few decades. They will come to mature they too."

Jo nodded to herself, having it confirmed that none was made that wasn't hungry.

"But, Joanna Beth, hunger and the need to kill are different things, yes, you know this?" His voice was like a song, a musing that sent her spine tingling and her mind wondering what his lips were like. She hated vampires; with a fury! But this one, he was-

"Have a safe trip, Joanna Beth, and I will see you. When you return."

Jo laughed. "When I return."

She got in her car, taking one last look at the magnificent vampire and smiled. She drove off with a longing for his lips - just to know what it felt like.


End file.
